Publications

February 1993 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Bidwell Training Center, Inc. and Manchester Craftsmen's Guild: Preparation in Pittsburgh

By: James L. Heskett and Roger H. Hallowell

Bill Strickland, executive director of both Bidwell Training Center and Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, has built a highly successful training organization to enable underprivileged minorities in Pittsburgh to escape the cycle of poverty. His success has led to questions... View Details

Keywords: Training; Non-Governmental Organizations; Leadership; Society; Competency and Skills; Pittsburgh

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October 2011
Case

Raleigh & Rosse: Measures to Motivate Exceptional Service

By: Robert Simons and Michael Mahoney

In January 2010, U.S. luxury goods retailer Raleigh & Rosse is being sued by its employees for encouraging "off the clock" hours. At the center of the class action lawsuit is the famous Raleigh & Rosse performance measurement system previously thought to be the core of... View Details

Keywords: Control Systems; Performance Measurement; Goal Setting; Compensation; Incentives; Motivation; Sales Compensation; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Growth Management; Lawsuits and Litigation; Organizational Culture; Management Systems; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Retail Industry; United States

November–December 2020
Article

Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case

By: Robin Ely and David A. Thomas

Leaders may mean well when they tout the economic payoffs of hiring more women and people of color, but there is no research support for the notion that diversifying the workforce automatically improves a company’s performance. This article critiques the popular... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Change; Trust

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2007
Chapter

Process Management, Technological Innovation, and Organizational Adaptation

By: Mary Benner and M. Tushman

The promise of process management practices is that as organizations focus on variance reduction and increased process control, they will drive both speed and organizational efficiency. However, this promise also accentuates the dark side of process management. These... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Management Practices and Processes; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design

July 2008 (Revised March 2009)
Case

elBulli: The Taste of Innovation

By: Michael I. Norton, Julian Villanueva and Luc Wathieu

Ferran Adrià, chef at elBulli, the highest-ranked restaurant in the world for two consecutive years, faces two related decisions. First, Adrià and his team must continue to develop new and different dishes for the ground-breaking cuisine at elBulli to guarantee a... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Creativity; Food and Beverage Industry; Spain

07 Jun 2021
Blog Post

The Value of the HBS Case Method – Lessons from an SVMP Participant

Growing up as a Black male from South Los Angeles, I was raised in a vibrant community surrounded by a diverse group of individuals who gave me guidance and taught me core values –such as curiosity, community, and persistence. My... View Details

January 2013
Case

Brannigan Foods: Strategic Marketing Planning

By: John A. Quelch and James T. Kindley

The soup division at Brannigan Foods contributes over 40% of the firm's revenue. The general manager is concerned that the soup industry is declining and that the soup division shows declining profits and market share, especially among the important baby boomer... View Details

Keywords: United States; Consumer Marketing; Acquisitions; Forecasting; Quantitative Analysis; Risk Management; Decision Making; Budgeting; Supermarkets; Strategic Planning; Demand and Consumers; Marketing Strategy; Food; Resource Allocation; Acquisition; Product Development; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

01 Jan 2002
News

06 Jul 2011
News

Washington's Complacency Cancer

January 2018
Case

Under Armour

By: Rory McDonald, Clayton M. Christensen, Daniel West and Jonathan E. Palmer

After 20 years of growth unprecedented in the sports apparel industry, Under Armour finds itself with a new record to beat: making the leap from $5 to $10 billion in sales—a feat only accomplished to date by competitors Nike and Adidas. At the heart of this challenge... View Details

February 2017 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Digitalization at Siemens

By: David J. Collis and Tonia Junker

The case discusses the digitalization strategy of Siemens AG, a German-based company operating in manufacturing and electronics. The increasing impact of digital technologies on all of its business units had prompted CEO Joe Kaeser and his team to put digitalization at... View Details

Keywords: Company Management; Digital Technologies; Corporate Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry

January 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Digital Transformation at Tata Steel

By: Krishna Palepu, Das Narayandas, Radhika Kak and Rachna Tahilyani

T.V. Narendran, CEO of Tata Steel, India’s oldest steel manufacturing firm, had taken concrete business and cultural transformation steps to future-ready the firm since taking over in 2013. He had deleveraged and instilled financial discipline, acquired new businesses,... View Details

Keywords: Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Change Management; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Steel Industry; Asia; India

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Creating the Office of Strategy Management

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

December 2016
Background Note

Reaching Beyond Your Organization: Empowering Innovation

By: William R. Kerr

Forward-thinking established companies utilize new routes for external innovation with start-ups and crowds. The reading reviews strategic partnerships, strategic investments, strategic acquisitions, and crowd-based collaborations. Case examples include Google, SK... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Corporate Innovation; Collaboration; Partnerships; Innovation and Invention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy

Article

How Local Context Shapes Digital Business Abroad

By: William R. Kerr

This article identifies how digital businesses need to be adapted to the local environment in which they are being applied. Core ideas include the development of strong barriers to entry, the types of network effects encountered, and the localization of business... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Information Technology; Geographic Location; Market Entry and Exit; Adaptation; Entrepreneurship; Network Effects

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July 2011 (Revised April 2012)
Case

The Clorox Company: Leveraging Green for Growth

By: Elie Ofek and Lauren Barley

The Clorox Company needs to decide on the marketing strategy going forward for its three sustainable brands, Brita, Burt's Bees and Green Works. These brands had fared differently over the past 3 years and each presents multiple courses of action heading into 2011.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Managerial Roles; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Sales; Opportunities; Corporate Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Chemical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

2011
Book

Managing Knowledge Assets, Creativity and Innovation

By: Dorothy A. Leonard

This book pulls together for the first time works on knowledge and innovation, including the implementation of new processes and products, written by Dorothy A. Leonard over more than two decades. It consists of articles from journals in diverse fields (e.g. the... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Management; Innovation and Invention